Question

The Head office sent this e-mail to Alex today: Thank you for your work on developing the recruitment and selection materials for the customer service representative position. We would like you to conduct a second round of interviews with the two candidates who scored the highest in the interview to determine who would be your top choice. We were happy with your behavioral description interview questions and situational interview questions. Recently, in the customer service job we noticed that there is a need for additional skills including the ability to multitask, train new people, provide feedback to new call center employees, as well as analyze problems. Additionally, we are concerned that you did not ask either of the candidates if they have outside commitments (like being responsible for childcare) that would prevent them from working late shifts. We understand that you believe there are legal issues in terms of screening candidates like this, however, we truly do need someone who is available for late-night shifts, so please ask them about their personal commitments outside of work (like family obligations) to ensure we hire someone who is actually available for the night shift.   

Questions for Scenario A (10 marks total):
1. a. Write 3 new interview questions that help represent new skills needed to be performed by customer service representatives. Two questions should be behavioral description, and one should be situational interview questions (2 marks for each question for 6 marks total).


b. In view of the company pressuring Alex to ask about the job candidates’ outside commitments, what are the potential legal implications that might still be of concern to Alex (2 marks) and also specifically write out your response you will provide to head office (2 marks)? (4 marks total).

Answer 1

1. a.) Based on the scenario, the Alex drafted the interview questions for the recruitment and selection materials for the role of customer service representative position. The new interview questions that help to represent new skills needed to be performed by the customer service representatives. The two behavioral interview questions (this helps to understand the details using the past experiences) are (i) give an example of an occasion or any situation when you used some new skills or logic to solve a problem? (ii) Did you ever make a risky decision or solve any situation using the new skill (like provide feedback to new employees)? How did you handle it with efficiency?

The one situational interview (asked to respond to a specific situation or crisis they may face on the job) questions are (iii) what would you do if you were asked to perform or practice a new task (train new people) you’ve never done before? How did you deal with this experience?

2. b.) Based on the company pressuring on Alex to ask about the two job candidates about the outside commitments, the potential legal implications are under ‘Discrimination in Employment Provisions (DEP) or Human Rights Code (HRC)’ and the legal implications are more on the legal aspects or ensure the interview process is not based on intentionally or unintentionally asking questions on prohibited grounds.

The response you will provide to the head office is positive and draft the interview question in different ways, in order to avoid the legal implications. The way the question interpret is different to ensure the job candidates can work the schedule company needs and should ask ‘Hope you aware this job requires regular overtime and has an irregular work schedule, can you meet this requirement?’